Before any of you dismiss me as some malcontented tourist who cannot be pleased, let me first interview myself.
I am a middle aged male who has traveled the world on both business and pleasure. I do not stay at five star resorts because I feel they are overpriced and pretentious.
My wife and I discovered the GPR & Spa back in March of 2004 (when it was still the Goden Crown) and fell in love with the place. We liked the service and the upbeat atmosphere provided by both the staff and guests. Looking back on that first week, we both recall not having one negative experience with the room, staff, or restaurants. The resort was not "five star" but a five star experience was provided. We have returned several times since, always having a great and relaxing time. That is, until we booked our last stay.
We stayed the week of 2/17 to 2/23, traveling with good friends of ours . We booked through Liberty Travel and as usual requested an Ocenview room on an upper floor which the resort always able to accomodate to us in the past. Our flight down was delayed two hours due to bad weather and we arrived at the resort about 9:00 PM. We were informed the resort was overbooked and the only rooms available were were Crown rooms on the second floor. The Crown room is nothing more than a standard room with a Jacuzzi. We were told there were be no extra charge for the night but if we wanted to stay in the rooms, it would be any extra $30 a night. Not wanting to pay that much a for a Jacuzzi we would never use, we were told if we wanted an standard room to be back at the front desk the following morning at 9:00 AM. The next day at 9:00 AM I was there. I was told to come back at 11:00 AM. At 11:00 AM I was told noon. At noon, we were given oceanview rooms on the first floor. We were told none were available on the upper floors. We go to the rooms and they were not cleaned. Go back to the front desk who now act annoyed I am asking for a clean room. The rooms were soon cleaned and we were able to finally start our vacation. I had never experienced anything like this at the GPR & Spa and figured it was just an abherration and let the whole thing go. That is until we walked down to the pool.
We go to the towel hut and we were told they were out of towels. You heard me right. A beach resort with no towels. I asked when they would get more. I was told "tomorrow". I go back to the front desk where there is now a line of newly arrived guests being told the resort is overbooked and they are being moved to the Great Parnassus, After 20 minutes of waiting, I finally get the manager who is appears angry I am bringing this matter up in front of a group of new arrivals. I tell him I am not leaving until I get towels and within 10 minutes, I have a stack of beach towels. We go back to the pools, where we find the only about %20 of the chairs occupied. The rest are reserved with towels. This we find out is a common issue where if you want a chair by the pool or beach, be prepared to reserve one by 8:00 AM.
Our vacation never improved. The toilet in our room would stop up every morning and the front desk would send the same kid with a plunger to get it working. After the second episode, I went back to the front desk who then sent a whole crew to look at the toilet. We were told they would have to remove the toilet. I said fine, but we would like another room. We were then told by the front desk "there weren't any". Not wanting to have the Three Stooges tearing our bathroom apart, we sent crew away. Our remedy for the problem was to use the lobby bathrooms every morning.
Over the remainder of our vacation, we spoke to a number of guests who had similar problems. Most problems were due to the overbooking. Some guests were sent to other resorts for a couple of nights and others were sent away told they could not come back at all. For some, it was a days long ordeal of arguing and demanding with management to get what they paid for. And most of the people we spoke with were return guests like ourselves.
I could go on but we still managed to make the best of a very negative situation. As usual, the help at theGPR & Spa was top notch. The servers at the Paradise have known us for years and we are even on a first name basis with some. The quality of the food at the restaurants has slipped with the Barn still providing the best food.
In conclusion, I feel the problems at the resort are with the management. It is obvious they only care about keeping the rooms booked and guest satisfation, even to their return guests, is not even on their radar. I am not saying everyone who stays there in the future will have a negative time, but right now, it is a roll of the dice. You could have the vacation of your life or the Cancun version of "National Lampoon Vacation". If anyone has any questions about our stay or the resort, feel free to E mail me.
